Dota 2 is getting a battle royale-style mode where you fight over cheese

The 2018 International Battle Pass offers some very interesting new things for Dota 2 players, foremost among them The Underhollow, a new game mode that has three-player teams setting off on a competitive quest for cheese that sounds an awful lot like an underground battle royale.

"Battle through a labyrinth filled with monsters, marvels, and many other three-player enemy squads as you search for Roshan's rarest cheese and work to be the last team standing. You'll need to navigate carefully to earn the XP and Gold needed to destroy your opponents," the Battle Pass site say. "But don't take too long—Roshan's cheese frenzy is causing cave-ins as he moves towards the center of the Underhollow. Soon enough there will be nowhere left to run."

It's not a dead-on description of a battle royale, but the combination of competitive play, "last team standing," and what sounds like a contracting battlefield certainly bears some basic similarities. And of course there's the fact that battle royale is the big thing these days, so a Dota 2 take on the mode would come as no surprise at all.

Battle Pass owners will also have access to the Cavern Crawl mode, with a "cosmically rare Jade Baby Roshan at stake," a new Mutation mode, sprays, in-game tipping, and—this is another big one—the Emerald Abyss, a reward terrain that will never be unlockable or purchasable on the marketplace. You either unlock it before The International is over, or you say goodbye to it forever.

We'll no doubt be hearing more about The Underhollow very soon, and we'll keep you posted when we have more details. For now, you can take a look at all the many many unlockables and rewards the pass has to offer, and buy it if you like, at dota2.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.